The first true bye in three years prompted Stanford coach David Shaw to cull through old practice plans in search of the proper course of action this week.

Focus on the basics, or introduce the game plan for the Sept. 27 date with Washington?

Push the players in practice, or back off?

“I looked through all the practice plans to remember what I liked and didn’t like,” Shaw said of the week of Sept. 19, 2011 — the last time an idle Saturday for the Cardinal was not followed by a Thursday game.

(Shaw calls the Saturdays before Thursday games “fake byes.”)

Three years ago, Stanford was searching for a replacement for linebacker Shayne Skov, who had shredded his knee days earlier in a victory at Arizona.

With no depth chart emergencies this time, Shaw decided to cut practice time but increase focus on certain areas for the No. 16 Cardinal.

Shaw added a session to the Tuesday and Wednesday workouts that focuses on defending the no-huddle offense, which is popular with numerous teams in the Pac-12.

Offensively, all eyes are on the young, inconsistent line: Honing technique, eliminating mistakes, and fine-tuning communication.

Placekicking is front and center for special teams considering Jordan Williamson has made just 2 of 5 field goals.

Jon Wilner has been covering college sports for decades and is an AP top-25 football and basketball voter as well as a Heisman Trophy voter. He was named Beat Writer of the Year in 2013 by the Football Writers Association of America for his coverage of the Pac-12, won first place for feature writing in 2016 in the Associated Press Sports Editors writing contest and is a five-time APSE honoree.

Otto Warmbier was arrested in January 2016 at the end of a brief tourist visit to North Korea. He had been medically evacuated and was being treated at the University of Cincinnati Medical Center when he died at age 22.